


in the middle of it

by Moransroar



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Romance, tony is nervous and pepper is cool as a cucumber
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24946882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moransroar/pseuds/Moransroar
Summary: Pepper finds a brand new pickup truck in their garage. She finds out that Tony has finally decided what kind of first date they will be taking Peter on. Now they just have to...tell him.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Pepper Potts, Peter Parker/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81
Collections: Starker and More Discord Challenges





	in the middle of it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LivviBee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivviBee/gifts).



> This was written for a lovely pepterony prompt by Livvi, for the Starker & More Discord Challenge. [Come check out the server :)](https://discord.gg/dhmy7Rs)

Pepper frowned when she first laid eyes upon the eyesore monstrosity that was the brand spanking new, overly shiny black pickup truck in the garage. She’d just gotten home and had parked her own car alongside it, eyeing it with suspicion. Either Tony was finally succumbing to that midlife crisis he’d been convinced he had coming, or it was another one of those presents that he was going to give away to a person in need because he always caved when a story like that reached him.

Those were the only two options Pepper could think of, and the latter seemed pretty likely – they’d recently gone to another charity gala, and while Tony pretended he didn’t like attending them for whatever reason he could make up on the spot, Pepper knew better. She knew that shortly after an event like that, Tony usually got antsy. The urge to do something, anything, to help, always became too great.

It was an admirable trait. Absolutely. But Pepper couldn’t seem to grasp why anyone involved in the last charity would need a pickup truck, of all things.

She inspected the car for another moment longer, her work satchel slung over one shoulder, before shaking her head when she couldn’t figure it out on her own and taking the elevator up instead.

After quickly destressing upstairs, taking her shoes and her coat off, letting her hair down, and leaving her bag in the living room, she went to find Tony for answers. He was at work in the workshop, as per usual, but as she approached she could see that he skittered around more nervously than usually. And before she’d entered through the sliding doors keeping the workshop and the hallway separated, she could already see that he was busily discussing something with whoever was listening.

Knowing Tony, probably Jarvis.

Pepper just about caught the tail end of his conversation when she entered, the sliding doors hissing softly to announce her arrival.

“—I don’t need to tell you how priceless that would be.”

“How priceless what would be?” Pepper piped up, and Tony whipped his head around in a way that confirmed her suspicion that he was up to something.

“That’s a very good question,” Tony said almost hastily, “One that I’m not going to answer right this minute.”

Pepper gave a fondly exasperated smile. “Then at least tell me what’s up with the truck in the garage?”

Tony looked more innocent than he ever had.

“Truck?” He echoed. Pepper gave him a pointed look, to which Tony pretended that he suddenly knew exactly what she was talking about. “Ah, yes. The truck. In the garage.”

“The new one.”

“Yes. The new one. I know it. I bought it.”

Pepper paused, and gave a pointed tilt of her head as if to say ‘go on’. Tony pursed his lips for a moment before finally caving. He could never hold his ground for very long when it was Pepper standing in front of him like that, giving him that look with her arms crossed over her chest and her feet bare and… He could so easily get distracted by all of that. He had to remind himself that he was going to say something.

“I figured out what I want to do with Peter,” he admitted, and Pepper’s face brightened, the beginnings of a smile curling at the corners of her lips.

“Oh?” She inquired.

“Mhm. And the truck is a part of it. But,” Tony stood from where he’d been sitting on a stool to go over to Pepper and brush his hands up and down her upper arms, “I want it to be a little bit of a surprise for you too. So, I’m not going to tell you what it is, but knowing you, you’ll probably guess the second we start driving, so if you happen to find out…” He trailed off, and gave Pepper a grin.

“Tony,” Pepper chuckled, leaning into him to give him a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth, “I don’t think we need to even get into the car for me to figure out what you want to do with it.”

Tony looked sheepish for a moment, mouth pulled into a smirk.

“I got the one with the biggest tonneau,” he admitted after Pepper looked at him for a moment longer. She smiled subsequently.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, brushing a kiss to his lips before she extracted herself from Tony’s gentle hold. As much as she would have loved to stay right where she was, she was desperate for a shower, and Tony seemed to have plans. “When are we doing this, then?”

Tony took a big breath as if he was bracing himself for something, and sighed out, “Tomorrow. I was going to say tonight, but I don’t think tonight’s ideal.”

Pepper knew that Tony must have wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, now that he’d finally come up with something that he seemed to be enthusiastic and quite sure about – but that was to be seen. If they were doing this tomorrow, there was still ample time for Tony to reconsider, which meant that Pepper was going to have to go and find the receipt for that car he’d just bought. Or find someone who just so happened to want a pickup truck like that.

“Tomorrow it is,” Pepper conceded with a small, knowing smile, and stepped back so she could turn and go back the way she’d come in, “I’m going to take a shower. You’re welcome to join me, if you can stop stressing about Peter for a minute?”

Tony only hesitated briefly before he followed suit.

The following day, when Pepper came home from work, she fully expected Tony to have changed his mind. But as she went to find him in the workshop, Peter was there, which wasn’t unusual in itself but it did give Pepper a glimmer of hope that perhaps this was finally happening.

Tony deserved it. And so did she. They’d talked about this so many times, and for so long. It had always been an inevitability, but Pepper wanted Tony to be the one to decide how it was going to happen, when, and where. She wanted this to be at his pace, because she had always felt that he still had some reservations about it.

Now, those reservations had been resolved, and whatever negative jitters had remained had been set aside, and it was time to follow through.

“Hey!” Peter greeted, giving her one of his signature smiles from where he was sitting at his own workstation. Tony had prepared one for him when it had become apparent that the kid could do so much more than either of them had ever imagined, if given the opportunity. Clearly this step had been a good idea, because Tony sometimes wouldn’t shut up about everything Peter invented, and said, while they were both tinkering.

“Hi Peter,” Pepper returned fondly, and ran a hand through his wayward curls on his way over to where Tony sat bent over one of his projects, still engaged in his work as if he hadn’t heard her come in. She draped herself across his back, and put her lips up to his ear. “Is it happening?” She purred, to which she could feel Tony stiffen slightly, straightening his back against her chest.

“Maybe,” he murmured, but the way his cheek bunched up told Pepper he was smiling. It was tell-tale. They were doing this.

They chatted for a little bit while Peter and Tony continued to tinker away. Pepper let Peter explain what he was doing, help her understand, and every time she looked at Tony she could see him glance at his watch or out the window, keeping an eye on the time and the position of the sun in the sky.

Until he suggested they get something to eat.

Peter was all for that idea, as per usual, being the bottomless pit that he was courtesy of the spider bite. Tony told him to go ahead and go down into the garage, and wait for them there. And when Peter was gone, Tony turned to Pepper, and Pepper could see what a nervous wreck he really was. It made her smile instantly.

“Tell me that this is going to go right?” He asked her, face pinched.

Pepper stepped in and smoothed her hands down his arms until he could take his hands in her own, and squeeze them gently, “It’ll be _fine_ , Tony. You’ve been stressing about this far too much.”

“I have every reason to be stressed,” Tony argued, “For instance, I haven’t told him that we’re going on a date yet. Surely I should have mentioned that at _some_ point?”

Now that… Tony is right about that. He should probably have mentioned to Peter that they were going on a date. Pepper and Tony had both expressed their interest in him before, one way or another, but that didn’t mean the poor kid would be able to smell that this was a romantic outing.

“ _Tony_ ,” she chastised with a small tilt of her head.

“I know! I know. It kind of just…refused to happen.”

“You’ve had weeks to tell him!”

Tony grimaced, and Pepper sighed in defeat. This had been a nice idea, but so far the execution was kind of poor. Luckily, Pepper, being able to think on her feet very well, managed to come up with a quick solution on the spot. Something that would hopefully help their situation.

“Then we take him out, and we talk about our intentions once we get there. Okay?”

Tony looked infinitely relieved, and nodded quickly, “You’re so much better at this than I am.” Pepper kissed him.

“Now let’s go. Get cleaned up and let’s hit the road.”

Peter didn’t seem to notice how nervous Tony was, but to Pepper it was painfully obvious. Of maybe he did notice, but chose not to mention. He did, however, comment on the odd fact that they were leaving the city, even though he had likely assumed they would be getting dinner somewhere downtown. Not in the outskirts. Not in the suburbs. And definitely not in the countryside.

Pepper flashed Peter a wink when she told him they knew of a much more romantic place to eat, which had Peter positively flustered. Good. They’d just have to ease him into it. Calm, gentle, patient.

The sky had darkened significantly by the time Tony took the car off road, and Pepper held Peter’s hand cradled gently in both her own as the car shocked across an uneven path into what seemed like nothing.

If Peter hadn’t trusted Tony and Pepper so much, he might have thought that they’d come here to kill him. Or, something.

But frankly, he was a little bit excited.

The pickup truck was clearly brand new and he’d drawn the conclusion that it was bought for whatever this was, and for this only, Pepper was holding his hand, and Tony had squeezed his knee a couple of times throughout the drive. It felt…special. It made _him_ feel special. As if tonight was all about him.

Peter was pretty sure that the other two had a couple of tricks up their sleeves, but he wasn’t going to ask. He just made friendly conversation, told them about his school work and chattered about his current projects, until Tony brought the car to a stop out in the middle of an open field.

He’d seen far too many horror movies to have a creeping feeling of where this might have been going. Would have been going, if he’d been convinced that Tony and Pepper were capable of something like that. But luckily for Peter, they probably couldn’t. Right?

But if they wanted to murder him without anyone knowing and stuff him in the back of this brand new pickup truck which they were then going to drop to the bottom of a nearby lake then this would be the perfect place for it.

They got out of the car, and Tony went around to take the top off the truck bed. To Peter’s surprise, it wasn’t full of heavy-duty tools and plastic garbage bags and duct tape and chloroform.

It was actually filled to the brim with blankets and pillows and thick comforters spread out across a mattress built into the bottom. Peter admired the creation while Tony opened a cooler, and immediately Peter was hit with a wave of _garlic_. In a good way.

Suddenly, Peter didn’t feel like he was stuck in a horror movie anymore, but rather… a romcom, maybe. Some guilty pleasure chick-flic. And frankly, he was already loving it.

“What’s all this?” He asked, cautiously optimistic, the corners of his mouth curling slowly upwards into the beginnings of a wide smile.

“It’s pasta,” said Tony, who was unloading the contents of the cooler.

Pepper corrected him with a fond roll of her eyes, putting an arm around Peter’s waist to pull him in closer and kiss the side of his head. “It’s a date, Peter.”

“Oh,” came the reply, a little bit surprised, a little bit awed, and very much the reason for both Pepper and Tony’s following smiles.

The sweet thing sounded so perplexed. Almost as if he really didn’t expect Tony and Pepper to want to take him out on a date like this, do romantic things with him, and why? Had they really not given him enough reason to think that they were into him? That wouldn’t do. She didn’t know what Tony thought of it, but Pepper was, for one, determined to change Peter’s mind about that.

She coaxed him onto the makeshift bed while Tony prepared a large plate of food for him. Tony visibly hesitated at the end of the truck bed, until Peter smiled at him, and patted the available space on his other side. And that was all the encouragement that Tony needed.

The three of them settled down with Peter in the middle, propped up against a mound of pillows, and ate mostly in silence. It wasn’t until after that they all settled into something more comfortable. Peter cracked an unexpected joke that had Tony wheezing, and whatever tension had kept their situation terse shattered the moment Peter looked at Pepper while Tony was clutching his chest trying to recover, and she could see that there was nothing but adoration in the young man’s gaze.

Pepper put her arms around Peter and kissed his shoulder. It encouraged Peter to reach out for Tony once he’d stopped snorting, and pull him in as well.

If it startled Tony, he didn’t show it. Just looked a little awkward for the first few seconds, before he visibly relaxed, and allowed himself to rest his head against Peter’s chest, cheek against Pepper’s arm where it was wound around the boy’s middle.

Peter spoke up after a minute of silence.

“This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever done with anyone, ever. Are we like, on an actual, real date right now? Is that really what this is?”

When Tony only managed to make a non-committal sound, Pepper cut in, trying to keep her fond eyeroll at Tony to a minimum. “It is, Peter,” she hummed, “If you’d like it to be. And this doesn’t have to be the only time something like this happens.”

Peter twists his head around to try and look at Pepper. “Really? Because that would be really nice, I think.”

Pepper gave an affirming hum, “If it were up to me. What do you say, Tony?”

Tony had been awfully quiet up until now. As if he was trying to keep out of it, as if this wasn’t any of his business. But it was Tony who had first introduced Pepper to the idea of inviting Peter into their relationship. She had already given it her blessing – now it was Tony’s turn.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, sounding awfully hoarse. Pepper shifted her arm around so that she could cup his cheek and make him look up so that both his lovers could see his face.

“Are you sure, Mr. Stark?” Peter murmured, and Pepper hated how hesitant he sounded, how tentative Tony’s less than enthusiastic reply probably made him feel.

Thankfully, Tony saw – and recognized – Peter’s expression, and instantly softened, much to Pepper’s relief. “Peter,” he said softly, and cradled the side of his face in one of his hands, shifting around a little to accommodate the touch, “You know if there’s ever anything I have always been sure of, it’s you, squirt.”

Peter melted into the touch to his cheek, his mind significantly put at ease. He put his own hand over Tony’s on the side of his face and relished in a touch that he hadn’t received often from the man in front of him, if ever. It was always Pepper who was pretty generous with her touches, brushing her fingers over his arm, pushing her hand through his hair, squeezing his shoulder.

They were more frequent, and lovely for that, and then Tony’s were few and far in between, which made Peter cherish them all the more when they actually did happen.

And now, he was lucky enough that he would get to enjoy the both of them, to an extent he never had before. Because surely if they were really dating, that meant that those touches only became more and more frequent. Right?

Peter realized very well that he’d be the luckiest guy walking around the compound, starting the following day. Hell, starting tonight, if they ever made it back.

Peter relaxed into the pillows, and drew his new lovers closer until he had his arms wrapped around the both of them, and had them tucked safely into his side. He closed his eyes for a moment to take it all in, allow himself to enjoy the thought of this new reality that had been created for him.

He wouldn’t say he’d always been envious of Pepper and Tony’s relationship, exactly, but he’d only been a part of it for a few minutes, and he already felt the effects. It showed in how Pepper caressed her hand down his chest, and how Tony tucked his face into the crook of his neck to brush a small kiss over his pulse point.

He’d only ever seen them like this with each other, and it had been heart-warming to see.

But god, being in the middle of it…

That was even better.


End file.
